I've been busy this week quilting this very large machine embroidered quilt and finally the end is in sight. It took four whole days, hovering over the machine, making sure that the quilting was in exactly the right place.  The embroidery is beautifully done, so the quilting had to be spot on. 

The centre and sashes still needs some freehand work, which Mereth will do on Monday, and then I need to clip about a thousand thread tails.  I feel like my life is not my own until this quilt is finished and back with it's owner.  She's going to be surprised when she sees it, she had no idea what we would do with it. 

Cross-hatching at this density doesn't always work with embroidered quilts, as the quilting can pull the fabric in too much.  Luckily with this top there was a bit of fullness in the blocks, mainly because they were all separately backed with pellon before embroidering. 

The fullness meant that the heavy quilting actually made the block flatter, all the puckers quilted out like magic.

I will put a flower in the middle of the heart shape on this block, and that will tame the centre fabric.  This is going to be one gorgeous quilt when it's finished.

Once the owner picks it up I am going to have a day in my sewing room, puddling around in my stash and making progress on my projects which have been ignored for too long.  I miss my  sewing room. But while I was quilting all day I had to spend the evenings catching up with other business things, so I had no spare time.  Next week should be quieter. Mereth will be glad to have the machine to herself; we had to take turns with Millhouse, zipping my quilt off so she could go to work after I'd finished for the day.

I really enjoy Mother's Day flowers, they are always chrysanthemums for me.

My kitchen table was covered in vases of them; one from each of my kids and I bought two local bunches so I can grow cuttings from them.  Three of the cuttings from last year grew and are blooming, so it's definitely worth trying again. 

I just can't decide what my favourite colour is, so I'll have them all.